Heroes Never Die, They Just Fade Away!

[Jherek Everfull]

Help me Keep their legends alive! Tell your stories here of your favorite characters. Share their triumphs, their failures, their lives, and their deaths. We all had a few we loved more than we should have, let's raise a glass and remember the heroes of old!

[Daos]

I'm pretty much never a player.  Even when I first started D&D, I was the DM.  There have been a few instances, though.

Probably the most epic thing I ever did, was when I played Halo Riverwalker, a halfling cleric of Pelor.  Once, when he was level 2, he was staying in a sleepy burg.  In the middle of the night, he awoke to screams and the sound of battle.  He quickly learned that, without warning, the entire population of the local graveyard had risen up and started attacking the locals.

Now at level 2, Halo didn't have much in the way of HP (I believe he had 9 at the time; when I hit level 3, I rolled another 1, and so had 10 then).  His ability scores were STR 13, DEX 16, CON 11, INT 9, WIS 17 and CHA 13.  So not exactly tanky (he wore padded armor).  And he only had a 50/50 chance of passing his turn undead checks on zombies, and all that did was scare them off a bit, it didn't defeat them.

Nevertheless, he did what he could to help as many people as he could.  He failed at times.  Some people died, despite his best efforts.  I was really challenged, though.  I had to really strategize to not only stay alive, but help others.  I mostly relied on my racial abilities; using my sling (+1 to hit) and my surprise bonuses to get the drop on them.  The NPCs I did save looked to me for leadership, so I would organize them and lead them into battle.

Once the village was starting to become a bit more safer, we got word that there was something in the graveyard that was behind this.  Based on the description, I recognized what it was--a wight.  I knew I was in pretty over my head, as a simple level 2 cleric.  The local temple gave me a couple of bottles of holy water to help, and I was completely out of spells by that point save for one--Invisibility to Undead.

So I lead a small group of men to the graveyard.  When we get there, we can see that there is a circle of zombies--about 10--and each one is holding a prisoner that they captured from the village.  The wight is in the middle of the circle and appears to be draining the life out of the held villagers, one by one.  So I cast my one spell, and tell my men to charge on my signal.

I sneak forward, to the circle.  I am not sure the wight will be affected by the spell, so I make sure to stay behind him.  The zombies don't see me at all.  Once I am close enough, I consider my options.  I could use Turn Undead and scatter the zombies.  But the odds of affecting the wight were slim, and it would probably just kill me at once.  I needed to take it out.

So I announce to the DM I am going to throw a vial of holy water at the wight.  I'm counting on my throwing bonus and high DEX to hit.  Maybe it will be surprised enough by the attack that I can finish it off before it counters.

I roll a 20.  The vial cracks into the wight's head, and it does enough damage to disintegrate it.  The zombies, with no will of their own, become inactive.  The villagers rush in and cut them down easily and the remaining hostages are saved.

I don't think I've ever done anything that epic since then.

[notARobot]

Most of the D&D games I've played in have been short-lived and awful, so I don't really have stories worth telling from them.

However, I was playing in a Paranoia game on Roll20 not too long ago which was pretty fun.  I was playing a character named Archie who was obsessed with explosives.  So we're prepping for our mission, right, and report to the R&D department to be issued our equipment.  But when we get there, there's nobody there -- just this miscellaneous stuff heaped in a pile behind this laser array...thing.

I forget how we disabled the laser-thing, but somehow we got past it and grabbed the gear.  Among it was what the GM described as a "grenade dispenser".  Naturally, Archie calls dibs.

The R&D department was sort of a large area, subdivided into a bunch of smaller rooms.  So Archie walks out of the room and down the hallway, and enters another room that's sort of adjacent to the one we grabbed the equipment out of.  Retrieves a grenade from the grenade dispenser, pulls the pin, and tosses it into the empty room before dashing down the hall and slamming the door behind him.

It turns out these were thermonuclear grenades.  Archie had just single-handedly vaporized that entire section of Alpha Complex.  TPK.

After the dust settled and our next batch of clones thunked out of the cloning vats, the party was very careful not to let Archie get his hands on any more explosives.  But I'll never forget how I had the GM rolling on the floor laughing (at least, that's how I pictured it in my mind...it sure sounded like he was, over the mic) from the moment I said, "I pull the pin on the grenade."

[GravityEmblem]

Once, In a one-shot with randomly generated characters, my Paladin broke down a door with a natural 20. A door, I might add, that the Rogue failed to pick.

Yeah, I don't get out much.

[Jherek Everfull]

Dempsey Rainor was a paladin/duskblade follower of a sun god In a homebrew campaign. While excellent at fighting and mixing it up with evil, Dempsey preferred the simple life of a missionary. He would travel around with little Satsumas, mandarin oranges, and kumquats in a magical saddle bag. If a piece of food was left undisturbed inside for 1 week, it granted the effects of a clerical orision, normally cure minor wounds, when it was consumed. Dempsey used this magic to help convert the masses. He told unbelievers and seekers to taste the glory of the sun while handing out fruits and giving small sermons.

His small miracles, coupled with the General awesomeness of citrus fruit led to lots of conversions. He didn't force his religious opinions on his fellow Adventurers, but he did stress the importance of living a morally good life. He went on many adventures, but the one that stands out the most was relatively minor.

The party road into a town being decimated by a pack of werewolve/vampire hybrids.. The large pack had slaughtered most of the villagers and several prominent campaign NPCs. The town in question was our primary adventure hub, so the party as a whole was invested. The DM had conceived of a strain of Lycanthropic Vampirism that was very quick to take effect. Sorta like a zombie plague in modern cinema. It was running rampant in town and nearly everyone had been infected. The party fought battle after ferocious battle through the streets and shops of the doomed town. In the end we traveled into a catacombs complex from which the BBEG was directing the ultraviolence.

Our opponent was a high ranking devil, and when the party set upon him he froze them in place, offering us all a free wish...as the spell. The other three party members rattled off crazy wishes "I want a potion that will grant me the powers of a vampire and werewolf", "I want a similar potion, but mine will allow me to control all other werewolves", "I want a potion that will grant me power over all vampires". Our paladin was appalled at the dynamic and dramatic priority shifts and watched aghast as the demon produces all three potions. Thinking quickly Dempsey whispered his wish to the demon...and all was granted.

The party stood shocked...then drank there potions. Dempsey waited. The DM explained that all three potions tasted remarkably like fresh squeezed orange juice. Dempsey stood and watched as his companions tried to utilize powers they did not have and were ripped to shreds by the hybrids. He then turned and charged the demon lord...

They battled for nearly 30 rounds of combat, when Dempsey went full nova. Sacking all his resources and landed a critical strike. Between the spells, arcane strike, smite evil, and weapon damage quite a few dice were thrown (12d6, 4d8, 10d4, 2d12, and a +30 to DMG) resulting in a slain demon...and a dead paladin. One of his spells expended hit points when cast as extra damage. It was amazing, and wholly satisfying.

He had wished his friends potions into orange juice to save there souls...then killed the demon that had tempted them all.

[Ezeze]

Oh. Oh man. I have so, so many ridiculous stories that if I get started its not likely I'll stop. I'm just gunna hit some of my high points;


-Took out an adult dragon, solo, at level 8 (my party members were all pissed at me and left me to die - bitching about this character's tendency to cast fireball centered on herself or something. Whatever ).

-Surfed a rolling boulder with a Force Shield.

-Freaked out an entire ship full of NPCs by turning into a mermaid to pluck a drowning sailor from the ocean in the middle of a storm.

-Seduced a god. Then later, in that same campaign, that god did something to upset my character so she gave him the cold shoulder - until he raised a sunken kingdom from the bottom of the ocean and made her its queen.

-Charged an adult dragon at level 2, survived three rounds while the rest of my party escaped with the NPCs we were protecting, then escaped myself (I still remember my GM's face when I said "I charge it." Like, you let me roll into this game with a barbarian I'd named Meghara the Mad, what did you expect!?)

-My badass paladin Annora wrestled a gargoyle to the ground, straddled it and punched it repeatedly in the face with her bare hands while screaming at it to submit (it did).

-A different paladin (I like paladins, okay?) in 3.5 that was riding-focused and had the Great Cleave feat took out five enemies in one charge attack.

[notARobot]

That's...an impressive resume.  I know you explicitly stated otherwise, but I've decided in my head-canon, all of this happened to the same character in one campaign.  Probably on consecutive sessions.

wrestled a gargoyle to the ground, straddled it and punched it repeatedly in the face with her bare hands

I hate to be Captain Buzzkill (okay, I'm lying, I live to be Captain Buzzkill), but wouldn't that just result in your paladin having two broken hands, and the gargoyle being essentially unaffected?  In other editions, are gargoyles not made of stone?

[Ezeze]

Oct 23, 2017 17:43:59 GMT -8 notARobot said:

That's...an impressive resume.  I know you explicitly stated otherwise, but I've decided in my head-canon, all of this happened to the same character in one campaign.  Probably on consecutive sessions.

wrestled a gargoyle to the ground, straddled it and punched it repeatedly in the face with her bare hands

I hate to be Captain Buzzkill (okay, I'm lying, I live to be Captain Buzzkill), but wouldn't that just result in your paladin having two broken hands, and the gargoyle being essentially unaffected?  In other editions, are gargoyles not made of stone?

There actually aren't rules for hurting your hand in a bare-fisted attack in 3.5 (which was the edition being used). It was one of these guys which means I had to get through Damage Reduction 10 - and I was, because that character was ridiculous and had the righteous anger of the gods on her side (and also Power Attack).

That was probably the most Paladin-y Paladin I'd ever played. Other exploits of hers included setting her spear against a charging Minotaur while everyone else dove for cover, volunteering to be tortured on behalf of another party member (who she had known for all of 72 hours), throwing the ranger (a halfling) over a castle wall to safety effectively trapping herself alone with the enemy, then riding into battle against impossible odds - then when the enemy inevitably captured and subdued her the rest of the party rallied and took the castle to save her.

[HorizonsDream]

I can't quite remember the whole story of the two characters that I'm going to talk about, so this is probably going to be kind of short.

Jasmin, my duel wielding fighter (I love my duel wielding fighters), with the help of a potion of flying (I think) and the help of her companions took down a shadow dragon in the air.

Lily, which I also believe was a fighter, managed to negotiate a peace treaty with a race of raptors that were supposed to be wiped out by the party. The raptors ended up becoming a playable race in the next game because of what Lily did.

[Daos]

Lily, which I also believe was a fighter, managed to negotiate a peace treaty with a race of raptors that were supposed to be wiped out by the party. The raptors ended up becoming a playable race in the next game because of what Lily did.

To elaborate on that, the setting of the game was in a sort of stone age and there were lots of dinosaurs about.  A meteorite that radiated magic (known as a 'star rock') fell to the earth, near a nest of Deinonychus (known as 'wicked claws').  The radiation caused them to become sapient, and to learn sorcery.  This new, evolved breed, were known as 'black raptors.'  They had black feathers, glowing red eyes, horns on their noses, and bony ridges down their backs.  They routinely attacked human settlements, their magic giving them a big advantage.

The idea was that the party was going to delve into their nest and wipe their colony out, basically making them extinct.  When they reached the end of their lair and met with their leader, Heather surprised me by not attacking, but trying to communicate with it.  She learned the black raptors thought humans were growing too fast and needed to be 'culled' to protect the balance of nature.  She gave an impassioned speech about how it was better to make peace, and that humans could be reasoned with if you gave them a chance.  I was really impressed, so I had her roll a persuasion check.  She got a 2.  So I had the black raptors agree to it.

In the next campaign, which took place a hundred years later, the black raptors had grown in number and even had their own nation.  They had a tenuous peace with the other races.  In fact, one of them was the party mage.

So by doing something unexpected, and getting a great roll, she changed the face of the campaign world entirely and introduced a new playable race in the process.